Connexions Resource Centre
Focus on Rural Issues

Recent & Selected Articles

  1. This is a small sampling of articles related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more articles, books, films, and other resources, check the Connexions Library Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.
  1. Maybe we can all learn from smaller islands? (March 8, 2014)
    Europe's periphories are meant to be in a state of collapse - but not so the Shetland Isles, where it can be found a land of open skies, howling storms, historic traditions, and an active, growing community of notable individuals.
  2. Twenty-First-Century Land Grabs (December 13, 2013)
    Land grabs -- whether initiated by multinational corporations and private investment firms emanating from the capitalist core, sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, or state entities such as China and India -- are now in the news constantly.
  3. Mistranslating Marx? The "idiocy of rural life" (September 27, 2011)
    One often hears the criticism that Marxism was from the beginning an extreme modernizing philosophy that looked with complete disdain on rural existence. Did not Marx himself in The Communist Manifesto, it is frequently asked, refer to "the idiocy of rural life"? Here a misconception has arisen through the mistranslation of a single word in the English translation of the Manifesto. In fact, Marx's criticism of the isolation of rural life then had to do with the antithesis of town and country under capitalism as expressed throughout his work.
  4. Connexions Archive Case Statement (September 24, 2011)
    Working together to secure a future for the past
  5. Mitziton: A community in Chiapas resisting the government road (March 5, 2010)
  6. Connexions Archive seeks a new home (November 18, 2009)
    The Connexions Archive, a Toronto-based library dedicated to preserving the history of grassroots movements for social change, needs a new home.
  7. Mobile Schools Help Nomadic Somalis Fight Drought (September 17, 2009)
    Mobile schools - secular pre-schools which follow these groups as they move to find pasture and water for livestock - are an attempt to help nomadic communities develop more options as the climate becomes increasingly hostile.
  8. The Lessons of Amish Agriculture (1987)
    Amish agriculture offers valuable eco-lessons to those interested in organic, earth-friendly farming.

Selected Websites and Organizations

  1. This is a small sampling of organizations and websites concerned with education and children in the Connexions Directory. For more organizations and websites, check the Connexions Directory Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.

  • P. Sainath
    The website of P. Sainath, rural reporter in India.

Other Links & Resources



Books, Films and Periodicals

  1. This is a small sampling of books related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more books and other resources, check the Connexions Library Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.
  1. An African Village Two decades of change in an African Village
    New Internationalist May 2006 - #389
    A look at the lives of people living in African villages and how things have improved.
  2. Everybody Loves a Good Drought
    Stories from India's Poorest Districts
    Author: Sainath, P.
    P. Sainath devoted 2½ years to visiting and recording the realities - delving into the fundamentals, the why of the realities - in India's 10 poorest districts.
  3. Farm Gate Defence
    Author: Wilford, Allen
    Describes how farmers have been driven to come together to defend their farms in the face of high interest rates, mounting production costs and low prices.
  4. How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grassroots Organizer
    Author: Wellstone, Paul
    The author's experiences as an activist in rural Minnesota.
  5. Land and Community
    Crisis in Canada's Countryside
    Author: Sim, R. Alex
    Sim's thesis is that rural society is overlooked due to urban dependence upon "great associations," economies of scale, and other socio-cultural institutions of unmanageable size.
  6. Rural Women In Latin America
    Experiences from Ecuador, Peru, and Chile
  7. Stolen Harvest
    The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
    Author: Shiva, Vandana
    The author, an eco-feminist and environmentalist, documents the effects of Globalization and Manufactured Foods on small farmers, the environment, and the food we eat.


Learning from our History

Coming soon





Resources for Activists

The Connexions Calendar - An event calendar for activists. Submit your events for free here.

Media Names & Numbers - A comprehensive directory of Canada’s print and broadcast media. .

Sources - A membership-based service that enables journalists to find spokespersons and story ideas, and which simultaneously enables organizations to raise their profile by reaching the media and the public with their message.

Organizing Resources Page - Change requires organizing. Power gives way only when it is challenged by a movement for change, and movements grow out of organizing. Organizing is qualitatively different from simple “activism”. Organizing means sustained long-term conscious effort to bring people together to work for common goals. This page features a selection of articles, books, and other resources related to organizing.

Publicity and Media Relations - A short introduction to media relations strategies.

Grassroots Media Relations - A media relations guide for activist groups.

Socialism gateway - A gateway to resources about socialism, socialist history, and socialist ideas.

Marxism gateway - A gateway to resources about Marxism.